


Broke

by TheOtherView



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, domestic hollstein, so domestic it hurts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 06:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13070685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOtherView/pseuds/TheOtherView
Summary: Carmilla and Laura have planned this date down to the penny. Of course, something had to get in their way.(Domestic hollstein date fic, third person POV)





	Broke

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy this lumpy disaster, leave kudos and comments!

Laura has spent the whole subway ride home completely unable to sit still.   
  
Tomorrow is Saturday. Not just any old Saturday. No, one with no work, no classwork, phones off so no one calls about some new impending doom. Tomorrow is all about her and Carmilla. The first whole day they’ll have had together in almost a year. The subway stops and Laura bounces off the train, thinking about the day all the while. First they’re going to the all-you-can-stuff breakfast grill down the street so Laura can cram her face full of pancakes.Then, they’re going to the zoo so Carmilla can see all the big cats she loves so much. The last part is the best part. They even saved enough money to go to the fancy restaurant downtown. Laura didn’t remember exactly what it was called, but it sounded french? Probably french.   
  
She jumps up the stairs and out into the street. For once, it feels as beautiful as when they first moved here. The air is full of street food smells and clashing languages. The skyscrapers tower at just the right angle to make the street feel cozy. Laura walks with a pep in her step, knowing Carmilla is waiting at home, knowing they get to sleep in, no strings attached.   
  
When she makes it home she pauses at the door, almost like a cat preparing to pounce. She shakes the excess excitement from her body and messes with the broken door handle.   
  
“Carm!” She says excitedly.   
  
Carm is hunched over a piece of mail, rubbing one of her temples. She looks to Laura with a light frown and lets out a sigh. “Hey,” is all she musters. Laura frowns in return, knowing all her happy little dances done this week will probably need to be revoked.   
  
“Please don’t tell me that’s an eviction notice. We planned tomorrow so well and so hard. And no matter what Mr.Vordenburg says we always pay our rent on time. I don’t know why he doesn’t like us.”   
  
“Cupcake…”   
  
“Or wait, let me guess, it’s my dad writing new security measures we should take in our apartment.”   
  
“Cupcake.”   
  
“Or, or, it’s nothing, and we’re going to have a fabulous date day tomorrow and we’re going to have the best of fun and nothing can bring us down!”   
  
“Are you finished?”   
  
“I think so.”   
  
Laura shuts the door behind her and goes to walk over to Carmilla, who turns the mail to the side and just out of Laura’s sight.   
  
“What is it?”   
  
“The electric bill.”   
  
“Should be cheap, right? We’re hardly ever home for the lights to be on.”   
  
“But we have been running the air conditioning. So the bill is triple what it was last month.”   
  
“Triple?! Just for air conditioning? Holy Hufflepuff!”   
  
“I’m afraid so, cutie. Which means I have about twenty dollars to my name right now.”   
  
“And I’ll have about-” Laura pauses to count on her fingers as if it helps. “Fifteen?”   
  
“So date day tomorrow is a no-go.”   
  
Laura’s shoulders slump and she just about tears up. Carmilla throws the bill to the side and opens her arms for Laura to fall into, and she does. Laura curls up at Carmilla’s chest and sighs.   
  
“But we planned every dollar.”   
  
“We didn’t plan for a common necessity to be a pain in the ass.”   
  
“Okay, well, maybe we can do something else.”   
  
“With thirty-five bucks? Cupcake, we still need to eat.”   
  
“We have groceries stocked for the next month.”   
  
Carmilla reclines and the couch’s old springs squeal. She groans and bites at her lip. Laura watches with a certain hesitation.   
  
“What’s wrong?”   
  
“You’ve been talking about this non-stop for two months, and I feel like I let you down.”   
  
“Carm, this isn’t your fault. At all. And yeah, I was excited, and I wish we could still do all those things we planned on doing but the most important part is still happening no matter what.”   
  
“What’s the most important part?” It’s genuine. Laura can tell. Carmilla doesn’t actually know. It almost breaks Laura’s heart.   
  
“For the first time in almost a year I get to spend a whole day, uninterrupted, with you. That is the most important thing to me, because you’re the most important thing to me.”   
  
Carmilla smiles, quite slowly. It starts as a smirk that grows into a small, blushing grin. She chuckles before she speaks, “You are so sentimental, you know that?”   
  
“Secretly, you are too, y’know.”   
  
“Me? Absolutely not.”   
  
“Absolutely yes. Hey, I even know a place that makes you feel sentimental.”   
  
“Oh? Would this be a real place?”   
  
“Why don’t we go to the MET tomorrow? I mean we can pay what we want to get in, and I know you love the art. And I love seeing those suits of armor. And we can get LaF and Perry a postcard!”   
  
“You know, that’s not a bad idea, creampuff. The thrift store is having that super sale again tomorrow too.”   
  
“We could get fancy new outfits!”   
  
“Date day is saved once more. We should probably get to bed before you start bouncing off the walls.”   
  
Laura gives Carmilla a chaste but sweet kiss on the temple to soothe all her worries. She’d be strong and mostly together, just being able to spend time with Carm. She pushed herself up from the couch but Carmilla stays behind. Lost in her mind, north of nowhere, and just west of collapsing.     
  
Laura lays in bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. Carmilla climbs in with her at some point, her warmth so pleasant to the smaller girl. Carmilla wraps her arms around Laura and places a sweet kiss on Laura’s cheek.   
  
Eventually Laura falls asleep with Carmilla’s gentle snores lulling her. She buries her face in Carm’s chest and smiles faintly. This is what matters most, just having Carmilla there.   
  
\---   
Carmilla wakes up alone, patting around the opposite side of the bed to find it’s empty and already made. She hears footsteps and immediately spreads herself to take up almost the whole bed on her own. Finders keepers, or something of the sort, she thinks. Laura comes in the room and walks as though she’s a deer on ice. Carmilla rolls over when Laura sits a tray on her nightstand.   
  
“Good morning,” Laura says sweetly. Carmilla eyes the trey and finds the ugliest breakfast she’s ever seen.   
  
“Mornin’,” Carmilla replies in her gritty morning voice.   
  
“I may have ruined the frying pan.”   
  
“It lived a good life,” Carmilla says. “We’ll remember it fondly.”   
  
“Right? Who needs pancakes when you can have slightly burnt bacon and slightly questionable eggs.”   
  
“Your culinary skills never cease to amaze me.”   
  
“I have to balance all the sugar in my diet somehow.”   
  
“Point well made,” Carmilla says with a nod.   
  
Laura crawls onto the other side of the bed, leaving Carmilla room to sit up and begin eating with a face that indicated true pain. She tried to smile through it, as she always did when Laura wanted to cook. Laura knew it was bad, but who could pass up on breakfast in bed?   
  
Carmilla could. And did, after eating half the plate.   
  
\---   
  
The thrift store is a place of wonder and magic in Laura’s eyes. She even swears the old woman who runs it is some sort of witch. Carmilla almost agrees most of the time. It’s a small boutique, packed with racks to the point that it’s suffocating. Laura tries on a variety of ugly sweaters and pretty blouses. Carmilla finds leopard pants that look like they were worn through every stage of rock n’ roll.   
  
Laura finally decides on a yellow sundress with black polka dots. She spins to show Carmilla, who is deciding between several leather jackets.   
  
“I need a fabulous hat,” Laura says.   
  
“Are you trying to look like an old movie actress hiding from the press?”   
  
“I am now, good thinking.”   
  
Carmilla and Laura both share a laugh as Laura finds a big, cream colored sun hat.   
  
“My name is Lola Kingsley, and I swear I don’t know what happened to my husband.”   
  
“Perfect,” Carmilla nods.   
  
Laura gets the dress and hat. Carmilla gets the leopard pants, a black leather vest, and a baggy white t-shirt. They change in the dressing room and shove their old clothes in Carmilla’s bookbag. The owner of the store wishes them “winds upon their backs.” Whatever that means. They give an awkward thank you and head toward their next destination.   
  
\---   
  
The MET is one of the biggest, most confusing places Laura had ever seen. Always something to see, whether it’s what you wanted to find or not. She grabs a map and turns it every direction trying to figure out where they are. Carmilla can hardly keep her sarcasm contained.   
  
“We just got here and we’re already lost,” Carmilla says.   
  
“No! Uh, we’re here, I think. And the suits of armor are there. Which means we need to go up those stairs there and to the...left?”   
  
“So we have a chance to get even more lost and maybe find it in our travels.”   
  
“Or, or, we can just wander around and let the universe decide where we end up.”   
  
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”   
  
They begin to wander in the direction Laura just has a specific feeling about. They find a vast array of rooms heading seemingly nowhere. They pass a sculpture gallery and Laura tries to conform to all the sculpture’s positions. Carmilla snaps some quite interesting pictures in the process. They proceed to find rooms full of old furniture and wonder how anyone used to be comfortable in them.   
  
“I think we’re going in a circle,” Carmilla says, spotting the same winding sculpture Laura had done quite interesting poses in front of it.   
  
“Oh well, let’s go this way!”   
  
“Aye, aye captain.”   
Carmilla finds bits of her soul scattered across the portrait galleries. Paintings full of histories she’d only read about in books. Emotions of those long gone trapped inside oil and old frames. She barely speaks, only standing silently to stare into the past. Laura stands with her, patiently. She intertwines their fingers and wonders where Carmilla has drifted off to. They stand in front of a painting of a sinking ship as the oil speaks to Carmilla in soft whispers. She feels small against the centuries that came before her.   
  
Laura gives her time to embrace it all, and starts to get lost herself. Lost but found in a gallery of people long gone. A few silent minutes pass before they continue on.   
  
They wander through a few musical instrument hallways, wondering how the old instruments were even played.   
  
“I bet that one is played with your toes,” Laura says.   
  
“I’m betting this one sounded like a dying tortoise.”   
  
They laugh together as they near the end of the hallway and Laura sees the suits of armor through the glass door.   
  
“Look!” she shouts.   
  
The other museum goers eye her as if she destroyed all the peace in their worlds. She pulls Carmilla behind her and practically slams herself into the door. Carmilla smiles when she sees the pure joy and excitement in Laura’s shining eyes. Laura bolts from armor set to armor set reading all the little plaques aloud.   
  
“You know, I didn’t peg you as a suit of armor enthusiast,” Carmilla says.   
  
Laura looks down at her shoes, and for a moment loses her smile.   
  
“This was my mom’s favorite part of the museum. She’d bring me here and I’d dream about being a knight.”   
  
“Oh,” Carmilla says softly. “I’m sorry.”   
  
“Don’t be,” Laura says, picking her smile up. “Being here just brings her back for a short while, you know?”   
  
“Yeah, I do.” Carmilla smiles as Laura goes back to analysing every piece of armor. Eventually she runs out of breath, and her stomach starts to rumble.   
  
“Sounds like dinner time,” Carmilla says.   
  
“We should stop and see if Kirsch is out today.”   
  
“Sounds perfect.”   
  
It takes about twenty minutes of wandering to find the main lobby. They stop at the gift shop and Laura spends another twenty minutes trying to figure out what postcard Laf and Perry would like best. Carmilla closes her eyes, grabs one at random, and Laura finds that to be a fair way to make the decision.   
  
They come out, just as the sun is starting to fall from the sky, their smiles are growing. Carmilla almost knocks Laura into the fountain, claiming it was an accident. Laura didn’t believe it one bit, but she was too tired to argue.   
  
\---   
  
“Kirsch!” Laura yells as soon as she sees the young man. She speeds over, giving him a hug.   
  
“Woah, Laura bro! Watch the cart!”   
  
“Sorry, you have no idea how excited I am to see you.”   
  
“Me or, like, the food?”   
  
“Both, equally,” Laura says.   
  
“What can I get you, little bro?”   
  
“Veggie kebab for me.”   
  
“And two hotdogs for me,” Carmilla says.   
  
“Comin’ right up.”   
  
Kirsch does his usual show off stunts, flipping condiment bottles, multitasking as if he were trying to win a contest against himself. He hands over the food and Laura tries to hand him some cash.   
  
“Nah, these are on me, have a fun night little bros.”   
  
“If you’re sure, thanks so much!”   
  
Laura starts walking toward home, a mouth full of kebab happily being chewed. Carmilla grabs her arm and pulls her the other way.   
  
“Where are we going?” Laura asked, her mouth still half full.   
  
“Trust me?”   
  
“You know we really shouldn’t go into the park after dark.”   
  
“It’s like 5pm, there are still kids playing in there.”   
  
“Alright,” Laura says. “But if we get killed I’m haunting you forever.”   
  
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, cupcake.”   
  
They don’t go far, and the sun is still just barely peeking over the horizon. Carmilla starts walking up one of the large rocks scattered around the park. She takes a seat where her feet are dangling over the edge. Laura sits down beside her.   
  
The night sky begins to clash with the setting sun and all Laura can see above them is a mixture of colors she wished the sky could always be. Purple collides with orange and pink. The night coming fast, and yet it feels so far off.   
  
“It’s so peaceful here,” Laura says.   
  
“Not a single honking taxi to be heard,” Carmilla agrees. “We should come here more often.”   
  
“If there’s ever time for another day like this.”   
  
“There will be. We’ll make time for more memories like today.”   
  
“Are you being sentimental?”   
  
“Maybe. Some memories are worth holding on to.”   
  
“When we get old, and don’t remember anything, I hope we remember this.”   
  
“I intend to hold on to every memory of you until the end, especially this.”   
  
“I love you,” Laura says quietly, kebab leaking all over her hand, her sunhat blowing in the evening breeze.   
  
“And I love you, cutie.”   
  
And they sit there, after the sun is long gone, and they walk quietly home. Because maybe, this is how it’s always gonna go. Maybe money traps them at home, maybe their jobs work them to the bone. Maybe this life is tiring and full of endless stress. But today, they are brought back to life, the way it can be, the way they will fight for.   
  
They hold each other’s hearts carefully in their hands, and pray for a thousand more days just like this one.


End file.
